Published By: Ritayan Basu
Last Updated: March 20, 2023, 19:32 IST
Mamata Banerjee at ATK Mohun Bagan’s ISL trophy celebrations (Twitter)
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee mentioned ‘ATK Mohun Bagan doesn’t sound good, simply Mohun Bagan sounds significantly better’
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed on Monday that she had urged industrialist Sanjiv Goenka to take away the ‘ATK’ tag from Mohun Bagan, the Kolkata soccer big which annexed the Indian Super League (ISL) title by defeating Bengaluru FC within the remaining on Sunday.
“I requested Sanjiv Goenka why is the ATK tag there earlier than Mohun Bagan. ATK Mohun Bagan doesn’t sound good. Just Mohun Bagan sounds significantly better,” the Chief Minister said while addressing an event at the tent of the iconic club here, organised to felicitate the members of the ISL champion team.
The principal club owner and Chairman of RPSG Group, Sanjiv Goenka, had announced after the victory that ATK Mohun Bagan will be rebranded as Mohun Bagan Super Giants at the end of the ongoing 2022-23 session.
Banerjee additionally introduced a one-time state authorities grant of Rs 50 lakh for the event of the membership.
Political observers, meanwhile, termed the remarks of the Chief Minister as a subtle political stroke to win the hearts of the lakhs of supporters of the oldest football club in the country.
In fact, after the erstwhile Mohun Bagan Athletic Club was rechristened as ATK Mohun Bagan following the merger of ATK FC with the football section of Mohun Bagan, there was a major uproar by the diehard supporters of the club.
“By commenting on the name of the club, the Chief Minister actually tried to tap sentiments of those supporters,” a political observer mentioned.
This is just not the primary time that the Chief Minister has made an try to woo the soccer sentiment politically. When Sanjib Goenka bought 80 per cent stake of ATK Mohun Bagan in January 2020, the membership’s arch-rivals East Bengal couldn’t take part in ISL due to lack of sponsors. East Bengal’s disaster deepened after Shree Cements returned the sporting rights to the membership authorities on April 12, 2022.
At that time of time, Banerjee had intervened and eventually on May 25 final 12 months, Kolkata-based Emami Group turned the brand new investor in East Bengal.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is printed from a syndicated information company feed)
